[. . . .]Rather than give her the ticket and let her go on her way, the officers decided to arrest her. One reached in, turned off her car and dropped the keys on the floor. Brooks stiffened her arms against the steering wheel and told the officers she was pregnant, but refused to get out, even after they threatened to stun her.

The officers — Sgt. Steven Daman, Officer Juan Ornelas and Officer Donald Jones — then stunned her three times, in the thigh, shoulder and neck, and hauled her out of the car, laying her face-down in the street."

Despite the curmudgeonly stereotype cultivated by Victor Meldrew in the BBC sitcom One Foot in the Grave, scientists found that older people view the world through rose-tinted spectacles, remembering the good times rather than the bad."

And what might that be? “Getting to truly show the world my creative ability … while playing … different characters.”One of the characters Montag wants to play is “a lifeguard named Summer” in a script she wrote herself.

“I am making the first 3-D beach comedy about a shark that attacks a small beach town and I save the day with my 3-D boobs,” Montag says. “I’ve even written a role for Dolly Parton to play the town mayor!”"

MOBA : The Collection: "The pieces in the MOBA collection range from the work of talented artists that have gone awry to works of exuberant, although crude, execution by artists barely in control of the brush. What they all have in common is a special quality that sets them apart in one way or another from the merely incompetent."

Scientists from Cambridge, London and Melbourne have found the first ever evidence that tyrannosaur dinosaurs existed in the southern continents. They identified a hip bone found at Dinosaur Cove in Victoria, Australia as belonging to an ancestor of Tyrannosaurus rex."

I was saddened by the death the other day of Sid Fleischman at age 90, so I thought I'd re-read one of his books. I believe The Venetian Blonde was his last Gold Medal book, but don't hold me to it. It's one of the funny little quirks of my memory that I remember how much this book impressed me back in 1964 when I first read it. Maybe it was the title, or possibly the cover, that caught my eye and made me pluck it off the newsstand. Either one would do the trick.

The blonde isn't in Italy. We're talking Venice, California, here. A cardsharp named Skelly still has his skill, but he's lost his nerve. He's in Venice to put the touch on a friend. Instead, he meets the friend's wife, who's about to work a million-dollar con and needs his help. Skelly doesn't want to get involved, but he's desperate for the dough. He owes a gambler $125,000, and the gambler's not happy about it, not at all.

Skelly meets the blonde in a bar, and she immediately falls for Skelly the way women do in these books. Skelly falls, too, but he doesn't see how it can ever work out.

As you have already guessed, the con doesn't go as smoothly as Skelly had hoped. There are plenty of twists and turns, with a couple of good ones only six or seven pages before the end. It's all very smooth and expertly told. Stark House has already done one Fleischman double, and it includes this novel. There's another double coming later this year. If you like Gold Medal crime and adventure novels, both volumes are well worth your time.

For the Mamma Mia! devotees who have come to the band’s music nearly 30 years after they split, tribute bands and YouTube clips of the Swedish foursome in satin and spandex seemed the closest they could get.

But in an interview with The Times today, Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, the male half of the Swedish group, offer a beguiling change of tone.

Asked if they would consider an intimate one-off performance — perhaps with an orchestra — that could be beamed around the world, Andersson said: “Yeah, why not?”"

The standoff began around 1:30 a.m. after the homeowner, who identified himself as Gerald Lancaster, fired a shot as his wife was leaving the home in the 10100 block of Amblewood, authorities said.[. . . .]Lancaster said he had been asleep during much of the standoff. He was surprised when he realized police officers had converged on his home."

Big Grinners Are Winners, US Study Shows: "The broader your smile and the deeper the creases around your eyes when you grin, the longer you are likely to live, according to a new U.S. study, AFP reported on Wednesday."

Armrest bonks cell user on head during movie: suit :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Metro & Tri-State: "Taj Showers, settling in for a matinee with her 10-year-old son, did just that as The Incredible Hulk was doing his thing on the big screen. She clicked her vibrating phone and hunched forward to 'discreetly' hold her conversation, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Cook County Circuit Court. But it was as she was leaning forward, her head tilted to the side that an upright armrest fell in to position -- bonking her so hard, she says, that she went to the hospital with a concussion."

News: Swords And Sandals And Werewolves, Oh My!: "Got to hand it to the folks at AV Pictures: They've clearly mastered the art of coming up with catchy titles and building films around them. They did it earlier this year with Lesbian Vampire Killers and now they're at it again with the almost-as-catchily-titled Gladiators Versus Werewolves."

Cryptids: The Elusive Bigfoot - Techland - TIME.com: "Why is it so hard to find Bigfoot? We could say, “Because there's no such thing as Bigfoot!” and call it a day but that's not fair to Bigfoot. Give Bigfoot some credit. He's lasted centuries without getting caught, killed, or filmed with a high definition camera on a tripod. So without getting into the real/not real debate, let's assume Bigfoot exists and move on . . . ."

Clyde McPhatter had one of the great voices in popular music. He started his career with Billy Ward and the Dominoes but left to form his own group, the Drifters, with whom he recorded some great songs, including the definitive (for me) version of "White Christmas." Like my last Forgotten Music entry, "Honey Love" was banned from many radio stations. Seems very tame today, of course.

In the '60s, McPhatter tried to change his style to meet the times. He did some fine songs, but hardly anyone listened. His career headed downhill, and he died of alcohol abuse in 1972, not yet forty years old. Shortly before his death, he'd told an interviewer, "I have no fans." He was wrong, though. He had at least one. I still remember exactly where I was when I heard of his death on my car radio. I'm still a fan, and I still listen to his music often.

Largely undeterred by electric fences, hundreds of wild baboons in South Africa's prized wine country are finding the vineyards of ripe, succulent grapes to be an 'absolute bonanza,' said Justin O'Riain of the University of Cape Town."

The 79-year-old actor was rushed to Queen of Angels Hospital on Wednesday morning after falling outside his Hollywood home, authorities said. He was pronounced dead shortly after arrival, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Culp suffered a blow to the head after falling while taking a walk and was found by a jogger who called 911."

The shirtless 35-year-old man was covered with scrapes and cuts. He told the off-duty Bainbridge Island police officer who approached him Tuesday afternoon that he was 'hunting werewolves and chuds' who could disguise themselves as humans. The man said he feared getting hurt."

Martians and Burning Books: Collectible Ray Bradbury: "Ray Bradbury is best known for Fahrenheit 451, his 1953 dystopian novel of community disconnect, book-burning, paranoia and isolation in a bleak future. But since 1947 (when his first short story collection Dark Carnival, was released), Bradbury has published 11 novels and countless short stories on every topic imaginable, many of which have collectible editions available. Throughout his impressive career, Bradbury has always been generous with his fans and happy to sign or inscribe copies, but early Bradbury autographs are more scarce."

Buried by a collapsing sand dune, perhaps 185 million years ago, the new dino was probably a plant eater and an early relative of the giant animals later known as sauropods, researchers report in Tuesday's edition of the journal PLoS One.

Named Seitaad ruessi, the species was 10-to-15 feet long and 3-to-4 feet high. It's bones were found protruding from sandstone at the base of a cliff, directly below an ancient Anasazi cliff dwelling."

'Go little monkey, go! No cages for you,' wrote a guy named Jack on the 'Mystery Monkey of Tampa Bay' Facebook fan page. (There were more than 16,000 fans of the elusive monkey as of Wednesday morning.)"

The missing plant was a rare Hawaiian orchid in a red ceramic pot. The plant is valued at $60.

Mitchell adds that thieves struck at a house next door. That homeowner reported receiving a note on similar paper, but written in red marker. It read, 'I took ur Mr. Wiggles if u want him call this number,' which had the same 409 prefix as the other note. The police report doesn't mention a value on Mr. Wiggles, or specify who or what he may be."

23rd Texas History Forum to be Held on May 22 � Inside the Gates: "The DRT Library will be holding its twenty-third Texas History Forum on Saturday, May 22, 2010, in Alamo Hall on the Alamo Complex. Entitled “Historiography: Texas History Detectives,” this year’s Forum will feature presentations by three distinguished historians, Gregg Cantrell, James E. Crisp, and Light T. Cummins."

South Park to Pay Tribute to JD Salinger | Comedy Central Insider Blog: "On this week's all-new South Park, Mr Garrison assigns The Catcher in the Rye, following the removal of the classic novel from the school's banned books list. After reading it, the boys are inspired to write their own controversial book entitled The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs."

The news gives new life to some old Polaroid cameras. The company, called The Impossible Project, will sell film for SX-70 cameras made in the '70s as well as more recent cameras that take 600-series film."

Daily Dispatch Online: "Animal Planet, 10pm: I’m Alive – An engagement party turns to tragedy when one of the guests is attacked by an alligator and a man is bitten five times by the deadly death adder. Will they survive?"

Now, the Russian permafrost is offering up the bones and tusks of the woolly mammoths that once lumbered over the tundra. They are shaped into picture frames, chess sets, pendants. They are gathered and piled, carved and whittled, bought and sold on the Internet."

Sunday, March 21, 2010

THE GUMSHOE SITE: "A. S. Fleischman died on March 17 at his home in Santa Monica, California. He was well known to children as Sid Fleischman, who won the Newbery Medal in 1987 for THE WHIPPING BOY. THE 13TH FLOOR (Greenwillow, 1995) and THE MIDNIGHT HORSE (Greenwillow, 1990) were both nominated for an Edgar in the juvenile mystery category. As A. S. Fleischman, he wrote several adult mystery novels such as THE STRAW DONKEY CASE (Phoenix, 1948) and COUNTERSPY EXPRESS (Ace, 1954). LOOKING BEHIND YOU, LADY (1952), DANGER IN PARADISE (1953), MALAY WOMAN (1954) and THE VENETIAN BLONDE (1963, all four from Gold Medal) were recently re-issued from Stark House Press as double-books."

I just posted a birthday notice for Fleischman a few days ago. I'm very saddened by this news.

I've seen and held a copy; I've seen it available for delivery on Amazon.com and BarnesAndNoble.com (and the easier-to-type bn.com); and I've seen it on the shelves of one bookstore near me. Chances are it's at one near you, too.

You know where else I've seen it? In USA Today last week (where they unfortunately rendered the title as "Memoir," but were very kind to give it the write-up they did). And I'm told that Time magazine will be running a piece about it in their next issue. Time magazine! And to think that when Don originally wrote the book in the early 1960s his agent told him he wouldn't be able to sell it.

The book tells the story of a man who's been the victim of a brutal assault and has to deal with the consequences: a peculiar form of brain damage that prevents him from forming or holding onto memories. When he gets out of the hospital he goes looking for his old life -- but how can you find something when you can't even remember what it was? And what if you're hundreds of miles from home, with no money and no resources, and only the cards in your wallet to remind you where you need to go...

For a taste of the book, you can read the sample chapter on our Web site, www.HardCaseCrime.com. But you're going to want more than a taste of this one. It's our first new book in four months, it's one of the longest we've ever published, and it's really, really good. This is not one you'll want to miss.

And we've got another new book that you might enjoy checking out as well: the first new Gabriel Hunt adventure novel since last November's HUNT AT WORLD'S END. This one's called HUNT BEYOND THE FROZEN FIRE and it's co-authored by Christa Faust, Edgar Award-nominated author of MONEY SHOT. In it, Gabriel and his team of hardy adventurers travel to Antarctica in search of a scientist who vanished after a final radio transmission in which he claimed to have found something impossible. What did he find...? You wouldn't believe me if I told you. The book's in stores now -- why not pick up a copy and find out for yourself?

We've got plenty more good things coming, too -- the next Hard Case Crime book will be NOBODY'S ANGEL, a gorgeous, heartbreaking noir novel written by a Chicago cab driver named Jack Clark; and the next Gabriel Hunt book, HUNT AMONG THE KILLERS OF MEN, is co-written by David J. Schow (screenwriter of "The Crow" and other Hollywood pictures) and takes Gabriel to the dark underworld of Shanghai. But those are both a couple of months away (June and July, respectively). In the meantime, I very much hope you'll give Don's book a read, and Christa's, and let me know what you thought of them. They're as different as can be from one another, but I think they'd make a hell of a one-two punch.

Best,Charles---------Charles ArdaiEditor

P.S. Congratulations to the winners of our drawing for free advance copies of MEMORY: Naomi in Ohio; Charlene in Los Angeles; Jared in Kansas City, MO; David in Iowa; Audrey in Bangor, Maine; Jack in upstate New York; Tom in Tennessee; Stan in Maryland; Fran in Seattle; Kristin just 50 miles away in another part of Washington; Dannie in California; and Mike in Massachusetts.

Harper Simon is Paul Simon's son, and the similarities between the two is striking, at least when it comes to singing voices and musical choices. In fact, it would be easy to call Harper Simon the best new Paul Simon album in years. And while that wouldn't be too far off the mark, it would be unfair. Harper's his own man, and his new CD stands just fine as something unique and his own. "All to God," "Wishes and Stars," and "The Audit" are fine tracks, then so are all ten of the tracks here. I don't know quite how to describe the music, but if Paul Simon had made an alt-country album, it might have been something like this. I like it a lot. You can listen to some of the tracks on Harper Simon's My Space page and judge for yourself if you're so inclined.